The History of Music Therapy’s Use in Dementia Treatment in the United States, 1950 —1997
Date
2024-05-23
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Abstract
There has been little exploration of the emergence of music therapy’s use with people with dementia. This historical research explores the development of music therapy’s use with people with dementia in the United States during the period between the start of the music therapy profession in 1950 and the unification of United States music therapy associations in 1997. A content analysis of materials from the American Music Therapy Association archive and oral history interviews with key figures and historians in music therapy revealed that research into music therapy and dementia began in the middle of 1985 and grew out of the emerging research interest in geriatric music therapy that began in 1974. Furthermore, a U.S. Senate Hearing in 1991 that successfully persuaded The United States Senate Special Committee on Aging to pass the Music Therapy for Older Americans Act was identified as central to the development of music therapy’s use with dementia populations due to the bill’s resultant surge of federal funding into music therapy research and the increased public awareness of music therapy’s beneficial effects on those with dementia from the hearing. Lastly, Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins’ ‘creative music therapy’ and Tom Kitwood’s ‘person-centred dementia care’ shared humanistic approaches to treatment, creating a theoretical overlap that aided in the utilization of music therapy’s use as a more widespread treatment for dementia since the 1990s.
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Keywords
history of medicine, music thearpy, dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, history of psyschology, history of music therapy
Citation
Bahhadi, J. (2024). The history of music therapy’s use in dementia treatment in the United States, 1950 —1997 (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.